Officers praised for saving driver who OD’d
The Calgary police officers responsible for saving the life of an overdosing motorist Thursday are speaking out, saying their actions are less heroic than indicative of realities faced by Calgary’s emergency workers.
When calls came in about a crash on Glenmore Tr. and 37 St. S.W a little before 9:30 p.m., constables Wes Burnside and Helen Schott were just a few blocks north.
Details about what was waiting for them as they raced to the scene remained hazy.
“They weren’t really sure what was going on,” Burnside said. “We’d just heard on the radio that there were other collisions from a hit-and-run that we were looking for.”
As they pulled into the traffic circle, Schott and Burnside found a scene littered with damaged cars and their dazed occupants — among them a gold-coloured minivan allegedly responsible for the mayhem, apparently sitting empty.
“It wasn’t until one of the bystanders said ‘ hey, the guy in there is still unconscious,’” Schott said.
Sprinting to the van, they found a man in his 30s slumped over in the driver’s seat.
He was starting to turn blue. Schott, who for five years was an EMT with Calgary EMS before becoming a police officer a little less than three years ago, immediately jumped into action.
Climbing into the passenger side of the vehicle, her EMS training took over.
She immediately worked on establishing an airway and stabilized his neck, while Burnside cut away his seatbelt.
“It was interesting looking back on it, because I felt more like an EMT at that point instead of a police officer,” she said.
Aided by two newly arrived officers, it wasn’t until they freed him the van that the full extent of what they were dealing with became clear.
“He was gasping for air,” Schott said, noting the victim’s conspicuous lack of injury.
“When I propped him up and holding c-spine stabilization on him, he suddenly stopped breathing.”
A quick check of his pupils confirmed their suspicions — he was in the throes of a fatal opiate overdose.
“I said, ‘somebody get the Narcan ( antidote), because we’re gonna need it,’” Burnside recalled shouting while performing chest compressions on the man — who by now was completely absent of vital signs.
Handed a portable naloxone kit, Schott immediately inserted the applicator in the unconscious man’s nose and depressed the plunger.
“I got about four or five chest compressions in, and we got a pulse back,” said Burnside.
Arriving shortly thereafter, Calgary EMS had to administer another two naloxone doses before they could take the patient to hospital.
Regaining consciousness in hospital, Burnside said the man had absolutely no recollection of what happened, or of the nine cars allegedly struck along the way.
“He went from Deerfoot and Barlow to Glenmore and 37th before his vehicle became undrivable,” Burnside said.
“Given the circumstances, it’s amazing nobody died.”
A 16-year CPS veteran, who only recently returned to patrol after a four-long stint with the training section, Burnside’s getting a firsthand look at the damage being caused by Calgary’s fentanyl crisis.
“I was kind of removed from that, and this is one of the first instances where I’ve seen it,” he said.
“Policing is policing — it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been away from the street, dealing with people is the same. But the drug issues with fentanyl here right now is incredible.”
The number encounters with opiate- impaired drivers is on the rise, CPS traffic section commander Insp. Ken Thrower told media Thursday, urging Calgar- ians to plan ahead if they choose to tie one on.
Dealing with fentanyl overdoses, and bringing their victims back from the dead, has become depressingly routine for police, said Calgary Police Association president Les Kaminski.
“There are situations our frontline members face day in, day out,” he said, expressing pride in the officers’ actions. “This is a reality for us — we’re trying to do the best we possibly can for the public”
Neither Schott nor Burnside are prepared to consider themselves heroes — saying their actions are all in the a day’s work for any emergency worker.
“Honestly, when I look back on it, it’s kind of just a day in the life of police these days,” Burnside said.
“Had we not been there, had we not even been as close to that accident, things may have been dramatically different for this individual.” bpassifiume@postmedia.com On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume